Odds & Ends: Cordero, Murphy, Red Sox, Griffey

Links for Thursday, as Armando Galarraga receives a new Corvette (but no perfect game)…

Reliever Chad Cordero has been called up to the Mariners roster, according to a team news release. Cordero hasn't pitched in the majors since undergoing labrum surgery in July 2008. He signed a minor league deal with Seattle last winter and has a 4.12 ERA and 5.50 K-BB ratio in 17 appearances for Triple-A Tacoma this season. In six seasons with the Expos/Nationals organization, Cordero posted a 2.78 ERA and racked up 128 saves, including a league-best 47 in 2005.

2009 first rounder Jared Mitchell told reporters that he is recovering well from his ankle injury. The White Sox prospect, who will represent the team at this year's draft, does underwater drills and is progressing towards baseball activities.

Daniel Murphy will miss four to six months with an MCL tear, so the Mets have reduced infield depth, according to Newsday's David Lennon (via Twitter). Murphy, who has not played in the majors this year, has missed significant time because of his right knee.

Strasburg's a star now, but college coach Tony Gwynn says the phenom was "sweating like a hostage" before his San Diego State debut, according to Tom Krasovic of AOL FanHouse. The entire piece is worth reading.

Bud Selig solidifies himself as a complete animal for not overturning the call. Armando has handled this mess with the utmost professionalism, Joyce has thrown an excellent career sadly into question over one mistake, he was extremely emotional and doesnt deserved to be ridiculed forever for this. The only guilty party in my mind is Selig for being so closed minded to preserve what he thinks is baseball, I cant wait until he is gone and I pray this decision is overturned someday. As a Red Sox fan who respects baseball, unlike Selig, Armando Gallaraga threw a Perfect Game in my eyes, and showed what it takes to act professional in every sense. We must forgive Joyce as well

I’ve got to disagree here. If he overturns the call, where does it stop? Every subsequent time an ump misses a call teams are going to want the same treatment. You just can’t retroactively change calls. It’s one thing when the game is stopped for a replay, but once the game has continued the call has to be final.

Fine, but what about other perfect games that have been ruined by blown calls? This one gets to be special because it happened to be the last out. This can’t be the only time in history a would be perfect game included a bad call.

There are bad calls all the time and we say that it is the human element in the game. All of a sudden we change the rules when something special happens? That makes it a little less special to me.

Go find those perfect games for me, then we’ll talk. This is the only one to be messed up like this, actually, as ESPN has done some research and found that the closest thing to this is a no hitter that was lost on a 3-2 pitch with two outs due to a very close ball 4 called.It gets to be special because it’s the last out, and that is pretty important, dude. You know the whole predetermined outcome fallacy that would prevent it from being ok to discuss an overturning if there were only 1 out? It doesn’t exist here. We know what the outcome would have been. 27th out. Ballgame over. Baseball Immortality for Armando Gallaraga.Here’s one for you, even. The pine tar game. I’ll skip going into detail, but that call was overturned and, hell, they had to redo the game from that point on. If that can happen, why can’t we have a call overturned on what is OBVIOUSLY the 27th out, after the umpire himself even said he messed up.

“It gets to be special because it’s the last out is pretty important, dude. You know the whole predetermined outcome fallacy that would prevent it from being ok to discuss an overturning if there were only 1 out? It doesn’t exist here.”

But there are two things wrong with that.

1. Now how do we decide which situations are special enough to go back and change? If a perfect game is special enough, are no-hitters important enough to go back and change? What about other games? Standard game ends on a close play. But maybe that team could have come back if only the correct call was made! Maybe that loss means they don’t go to the playoffs. Or maybe we’ll just have a fourth out at the end of every game just to be sure that nothing else would have happened. Yeah, a little extreme, but point is this: If we decide it’s okay for a near perfect game, then what other situations is it okay for because there are many that are as important or more important.

2. We change the call and pretend that the base hit and the batter after never happened? Well it did. It happened, we don’t just go back and pretend something didn’t happen because we want a different outcome.

“Now how do we decide which situations are special enough to go back and change?”

I DONT KNOW MAN YOURE RIGHT ITS ALL UP IN THE AIR NOW THERE IS NO TRUTH WHAT DO WE DO AHHHHHH

“If a perfect game is special enough, are no-hitters important enough to go back and change? What about other games? Standard game ends on a close play. But maybe that team could have come back if only the correct call was made!”

I dunno, let’s talk about it! Do you think the best solution is “NO RULE CHANGE EVA. RULES IS RULES, SEE”? I don’t.

For my part, I think blown calls on the final out of ANY game should be reviewable. Why shouldn’t it be? But again, this doesn’t follow necessarily from reversing last night’s call.

“2. We change the call and pretend that the base hit and the batter after never happened? Well it did. It happened, we don’t just go back and pretend something didn’t happen because we want a different outcome.”

Why not? Who does it harm? Does that last 6-3 make the game of baseball more special for you?

where does it stop? how about begin? this needed to be done to give justice to a fine effort that every single person whom isnt blind knows donald was out, even Joyce after the replay. its not like this is asked for all the time, but something is seriously wrong with Selig to not give it to him even after the ump that called it admitted its the wrong call, now Joyce will get death threats and be viewed as a bad umpire, which isnt even true. Not all teams would want the same treatment, this is the doomsday of ALL scenarios you could possibly come up with and yes you can change the call, Selig can do it, he just wont because he is so hung up on himself and how he thinks the game should be. he was out, the game was over, period. it was a perfect game

What does overturning the call really accomplish? Gallaraga doesn’t really get to feel the celebratory joy… Joyce already robbed him of that. The Tigers won’t go back and through a party in the clubhouse. He already said he considers it a perfect game, the same as anyone else.

We all consider Pete Rose a Hall of Famer to except for the sad fact, like this now, it doesnt matter what we think because hes not in there. Gallaraga deserves the recognition, people whom hang onto the “sanctity” of the game are so full of it

There is one, you don’t seem to see it. You are talking about changing the rules of the game after the game is played. In what world is that okay?

The game was completed with the same rules as any other game, the umpire’s call is final and there is no reply at 1st base. Now after the game is completed, we decide we don’t like how those rules applied to this situation. It is simply not fair to change how the rules apply after the fact.

And yeah, it makes it less special, because we didn’t get to enjoy the perfect game when it happened. In future situations, we then sit an wonder if a call will subsequently overturned. I personally enjoy that a baseball game is final when the last out is called.

It is not fair because you change the way the rules apply after the fact. It is not fair to retroactively change the rules for one person and not the other. It is not fair to make a judgement about a specific situation, deciding it is so special that we get to change the rules. What if a guy gets close to 4,000 hits? That’s even more “special” than a perfect game! Do we go back and make sure we overturn all those times he should have been called safe at first just because he “should” have more hits. Then we can get him the recognition he deserves.

If it changes the rules going forward and the game is called better going forward, great. But you don’t go back and adjust the way the game is called just to get the outcome you want. Even if it is a justified outcome.

I feel bad for the kid, it sucks. But those are the breaks, everyone gets a bad call that doesn’t go their way. But go ahead and keep putting words in my mouth, I’ve made my point.

“It is not fair to retroactively change the rules for one person and not the other.”

I agree! So long as “the other person” here had the same thing happen to them — a blown call on the 27th out of a perfect game — it would be completely unfair to refuse to change the rules for them but do it here.

That’s unfair because it’s inconsistent; it’s arbitrary. Merely refusing to overturn EVERY blown call categorically while overturning this one isn’t inconsistent at all, though. So what’s unfair about it?

“It is not fair to make a judgement about a specific situation, deciding it is so special that we get to change the rules.”

I don’t think you’re totally clear on how rules work and by whom they’re made — or even THAT they’re made, maybe. You remember that, right? We’re not talking about laws of physics, but rules to a game played by a group of people. The people make the rules up and can choose to change them.

Who in this group of people is done wrong changing or revising this rule, by reversing this call? And if no one is done wrong by it, in what sense is it “unfair”?

New rule: every time an umpire clearly blows the call on the 27th out of a perfect game, it can be reviewed and overturned.

Maybe you’ll say “other people who had bad calls made” is done wrong here. I think you’re wrong that they’re done wrong, for one, but even if you’re right, so long as there is something that makes this situation distinguishable from those others, it’s not unfair in the sense that it’s inconsistent or arbitrary rule-change; it’s just a different application in a unique context. IOW, it’s not the league treating two of the same things different, they’re treating two different things differently. Do you see why?

Yes, they changed the rules of the game to include replay review of home runs. That would be a perfectly acceptable outcome of this situation. However, when they decided to review home runs, they did not go back to some defining moment and say “that home run should have counted, so we are going to count it, include it in the official box score and change the outcome of the game.”

The new HR review rule “screws” all historical would-have-been HRs in exactly the same way, but you’re fine with that. Game is still “special”.

Just don’t go back and correct an obvious call the only consequence of which was to rob a guy of a perfect game, one of the most amazing accomplishments in all of sports. Because that wouldn’t be fair, guys.

besides, Selig throw out 50 no hitters that were deemed invalid. the problem with that bag of hot air is that he only likes take achievements away (ie. steriods, bad calls, no hitters, now perfect games) and not setting things straight. He is a bad man and needs to go, seriously

A retroactive call overturn is a bit much, but in the argument for expanding video replay to debate calls like they do with home runs, I think we’ve found a great arguing point. Call the other umps there and get things straightened out.

i also agree of course, and you start that discussion by showing how Joyce got it right using replay and Selig over turning it. The longer he drags his feet keeping the majors in the stone age when there are better ways of ensuring fair play, the longer this kind of unnecessary agony will continue for no good reason

Bud Selig can do whatever he wants, the rules dont matter when it comes to him, he gets the final say. If he can throw out no hitters and bar players from the hall, he can do as he pleases. He had his first opportunity to do whats right and fix it and he continues his streak of being out of touch with fans and the players

Pete Rose broke the rules and was punished. The no hitters were thrown out because they did not comply with the definition of a no hitter. All of them were determined not to be no-hitters because the pitcher didn’t throw 9 innings.

The Rose situation (right or wrong) doesn’t apply. We’re talking about changing the game after the fact.

The no-hitters aren’t really the same thing either. They didn’t retroactively add hits to those games. They made a formal decision on the definition of a no-hitter and those games didn’t make the cut… much like how last night’s game did not meet the definition of a perfect game. Even if it should have, it was not.

i agree with you 100%. i feel bad for galarraga, and jim joyce. galarraga showed more class than i thought anyone could have and joyce was very sincere and stood up and knew he was wrong. i’m glad he stayed to ump today and it was nice to see them shakes hands before the game. i hope they consider him as throwing a perfect game cause i do and i really hope that people don’t think of this when they think of jim joyce.

On top of that, history is going to forget arguably one of the best catches by Austin Jackson that eyes can see. I dont know how he caught it to save the Perfect game, but now it will be forgotten because its just another game, when we all know in our hearts that it isnt, and we should give the man what he earned and not punish him over a very stupid and controversial technicality

It was an outstanding catch… and it still gets shown on Sportscenter, and Baseball Tonight, etc. After they show the replay, they talk about the perfect game that wasn’t.

If the correct call was made on the field:
The catch gets shown on Sportscenter, Baseball Tonight, etc. After they show the replay, they talk about the 21st perfect game and the 3rd this season in a truly historic month.

Dont get me wrong, if it was a tie, tie goes to the runner. Thats fair, i could live with that, but it was no where near close at all. If it were any other living, breathing human being umping first it would have been a Perfect Game. This isnt an issue of rules as I see it, its an ethical issue

“That is exactly right. There are no ties and there is no rule that says the tie goes to the runner. But the rule book does say that the runner must beat the ball to first base, and so if he doesn’t beat the ball, then he is out. “-Major League crew chief Tim McClelland

I for one am tired of the good old boy mentality of Major League Baseball. I would love to see instant replay used for missed calls. Maybe have a select group of personnel in a press box watching over every play, if one is missed buzz down to an umpire and he can overrule it right away, no delay, play ball. I think it is sad time when you have the video evidence right in front of you and you don’t overturn the call. To me it’s like watching somebody rob a store on tape and the judge throws the case out for no reason. This was an injustice and Gallaraga got screwed over, but hey at least Lincecum and smoke weed and get no suspension and all the roid heads get to break records! Got to love Selig!!! If you ask me Selig is on a “Slippery Slope” look at what he did to the Expos when they were contending for the Wild Card, he wouldn’t even let them have September call ups, because how would that look? A soon to be contracted team winning the Wild Card? MLB fans deserve better, Gallaraga deserved better! Heck even Joyce deserved better!!!

Your argument makes no sense at all. Galarraga should feel cheated that Selig didn’t overturn his call because he let players on steroids get records and Lincecum smoke weed? uhhhhhhmmmmmmmmYou alright?

I Wish Chad Cordero well. Coming back from shoulder surgery is a long, hard, slog. Congratulations to him for doing the hard work in the wilderness for over two years. Hope he pitches well enough to continue his career.